Los Angeles Airport (LAX) is one of the busiest airports in the world. Located on the southern coast of California, Los Angeles International Airport handles thousands of domestic and international commercial flights every year.

Located 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Los Angeles, Los Angeles International Airport provides travelers with extensive and modern facilities, with convenient transport links by road and rail. LAX Airport flies international passengers and cargo traffic to and from the five-county Southern California region, serving 88 airlines through nine terminals.

Commercial service began at LAX in 1946, with domestic and international terminals and a second-level roadway added in the 1980s. With its increasingly expanding air cargo system, Los Angeles International Airport is a commerce leader and is set for further major expansion from 2006.

Los Angeles International Airport is served by most US domestic carriers and a wide range of international airlines. Airlines will usually board from their designated terminals. Each terminal at Los Angeles International Airport serves several airlines and a large number of destinations. Each terminal has a variety of restaurants, bars, newsstands, and shops. Business services, banks, and ATMs are also available. The Tom Bradley Terminal is LAX’s principal terminal and offers additional services including a first-aid station and direct telephone service for hotel and car reservations. The following shows standard boarding areas (where you will find a ticket and information desk) and USA telephone numbers for the airlines.

Terminal 1

Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 1 serves America West, Southwest, and US Airways. It contains gates 1-13.

• Southwest Airlines - +1 800 435 9792
• US Airways - +1 800 428 4322

Terminal 2

Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 2 serves Air Canada / Canada Jazz, Air China, Air FRance, Air New Zealand, Aviacsa, Avianca, Hawaiian Air, KLM,LACSA, Northwest, TACA, Virgin Atlantic, and West Jet.

• Air Canada (888) 247-2262
• Air Canada Jazz (888) 247-2262
• Air China (800) 882-8122
• Air France (800) 237-2747
• Air New Zealand (800) 262-1234
• Aviacsa Airline (888) 528-4227
• Avianca Airlines (800) 284-2622
• Hawaiian Airlines (800) 367-5320
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (800) 225-2525
• LACSA Airlines (800) 225-2272
• Northwest Airlines (800) 225-2525
• TACA International Airlines (800) 535-8780
• Virgin Atlantic (800) 862-8621
• West Jet (888) 937-85

Terminal 3

Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 3 serves Alaska Air and Horizon Air. It contains gates 30-39.

• Alaska Airlines - +1 800 426 0333
• Horizon Air - +1 800 547 9308

Terminal 4

Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 4 serves American Airlines, American Eagle, Cathay Pacific, Midwest and Qantas. It contains gates 41-48.

• American Airlines (800) 433-7300
• American Eagle (800) 433-7300
• Cathay Pacific CX 882 Arrivals (800) 233-2742
• Cathay Pacific CX 884 Arrivals (800) 233-2742
• Midwest Airlines (800) 452-2022
• Qantas-Flights (800) 227-4500

Terminal 5

Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 5 serves Aerolitoral, Aeromexico (arrivals), Air Jamaica, Alitalia and Delta. It contains gates 50-58.

• Aerolitoral (800) 237-6639
• Aeromexico (800) 237-6639
• Air Jamaica (800) 523-5585
• Alitalia (800) 223-5730
• Delta Air Lines (800) 221-1212

Terminal 6

Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 6 serves Air Tran, Continental Airlines, Copa Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Sun Country, United and Virgin America. It contains gates 60-69.

• AirTran Airways (800) 247-8726
• Continental Airlines (800) 525-0280
• Copa Airlines (Panama) (800) 359-2672
• Frontier Airlines (800) 432-1359
• Spirit Airlines (800) 772-7117
• Sun Country (800) 359-6786
• United Airlines (800) 241-6522
• Virgin America (877) 359-8474

Terminal 7

Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 7 serves United, and United Express. It contains gates 70-78.

• United Airlines (domestic and international) - +1 800 241 6522
• United Express - +1 800 241 6522

Terminal 8

Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 8 serves United Airlines. It contains gates 80-88.

• United Airlines (domestic) / United Express - +1 800 241 6522

Tom Bradley International Terminal

The Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport serves Aer Lingus, Aeroflot, Air Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Copa Airlines, El Al Israel Airlines, EVA Air, Japan Airlines, Korean Airlines, LAN (Chile), LAN (Peru), LTU International Airways, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airline, Mexicana Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Qantas-Flights, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines Ltd., Thai Airways, United Airlines and Varig Brazilian Airlines

• Aer Lingus (800) 474-7424
• Aeroflot (888) 340-6400
• Air Pacific (800) 227-4446
• Air Tahiti Nui (877) 824-4846
• Alaska Airlines (800) 426-0333
• All Nippon Airways (ANA) (800) 235-9262
• Asiana Airlines (800) 227-4262
• British Airways (800) 247-9297
• Cathay Pacific Airways (800) 233-2742
• China Airlines (800) 227-5118
• China Eastern (626) 583-1500
• China Southern (888) 338-8988
• Copa Airlines (Panama) (800) 359-2672
• El Al Israel Airlines (800) 352-5747
• EVA Air (800) 695-1188
• Japan Airlines (800) 525-3663
• Korean Airlines (800) 438-5000
• LAN (Chile) (866) 435-9526
• LAN (Peru) (866) 435-9526
• LTU International Airways (866) 266-5588
• Lufthansa (800) 645-3880
• Malaysia Airline (800) 552-9264
• Mexicana Airlines (800) 531-7921
• Philippine Airlines (800) 435-9725
• Qantas-Flights 93,94,107,108 (800) 227-4500
• Singapore Airlines (800) 742-3333
• Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. (877) 359-7947
• Thai Airways (800) 426-5204
• United Airlines (800)241-6522
• Varig Brazilian Airlines (800) 468-2744

Shopping

Duty Free

All terminals except Terminal 8 provide duty-free shopping, with three shops at Tom Bradley Terminal.

Gift Shops

Amongst stores at LAX are several branches of See’s Candy, Crews of California, Hudson newsagents, and Via Voyage.

Restaurants and Bars

LAX offers a wide selection of fast-food outlets, including Burger King, Starbucks, California Pizza Kitchen, McDonald’s, Home Turf Sports Bars, Boudin Sourdough Bakery, plus fine dining at two outlets of Wolfgang Puck.

Business Services

Internet Access

Dataports are available at public telephones in all terminals. Neptune Networks operates 60 Internet kiosks in Terminals 1, 2, 3, and 6.

Mobile Phone Rental

Call +1 310 645 3500 for information. Phones available to hire from Tom Bradley Terminal (lower level).

Fax and Photocopying

Facilities are available at the ICE currency exchange booth at Tom Bradley Terminal (lower level).

Post

No US post services are available at LAX.

Currency Exchange and ATMs

Foreign Exchange Desks

These are located at all terminal departure halls and at Tom Bradley Terminal arrivals hall. ICE foreign currency exchange booths are located on the upper floor of each terminal. Opening hours vary; call: +1 310 646 7934 for details. Traveler’s checks can be exchanged at every terminal. Visa card and MasterCard cash advances available up to USD 300 at ICE currency exchange kiosks at Terminals 2, 3, 5, 7, and Tom Bradley Terminal.

Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs)

ATMs dispense cash from machines on both upper and lower floors of each terminal.

Los Angeles International Airport Hotels : -

Holiday Inn Los Angeles International Arpt Hotel

Embassy Suites Airport South LAX Hotel Los Angeles, California CA

Comfort Inn and Suites LAX Airport Hotel Los Angeles California CA

Best Western Suites Hotel

Best Western Airpark Hotel

Days Inn LAX Airport Hotel Center Venice Beach Los Angeles, California CA

Best Western Airport Plaza Inn

Econo Lodge Inglewood

Comfort Inn Manhattan Beach

Holiday Inn Express Manhattan Beach (South Bay Area)

Holiday Inn Express Marina Del Rey / Venice Area, CA

737 Washington Blvd. MARINA DEL REY CA 90292 UNITED STATES Distance to Airport : 4 Miles / 6.4 Kilometers

Econo Lodge Los Angeles

Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites Lawndale-Lax Airport Area

Quality Inn and Suites Hermosa Beach

Best Western Redondo Beach Galleria Inn

Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites Hermosa Beach

Days Inn LAX Airport Hotel South Bay Manhattan / Redondo Beach Los Angeles, California CA

Best Western Royal Palace Inn and Suites

La Quinta Inn and Suites LAX

Le Meridien at Beverly Hills

Comfort Inn and Suites Gardena

Comfort Inn Los Angeles

Crowne Plaza Beverly Hills, CA

Holiday Inn Torrance Hotel

The Westwood On Wilshire Hotel

Staybridge Suites By Holiday Inn Torrance

Best Western Hollywood Plaza Inn

Econo Lodge Hollywood

Holiday Inn Express Century City, CA

Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites Los Angeles-Silverlake

Intercontinental Los Angeles Century City

Omni Los Angeles Hotel at California Plaza

Quality Inn and Suites Downtown Los Angeles

Four Seasons Los Angeles

Best Western Sunset Plaza Hotel

Holiday Inn Express Hollywood, CA

Holiday Inn Hollywood Walk Of Fame Hotel

Holiday Inn Santa Monica Beach At The Pier Hotel

Comfort Inn Los Angeles

Econo Lodge Carson

Holiday Inn Los Angeles City Ctr Hotel

Quality Inn South Bay Carson

Hilton Checkers

Sofitel Los Angeles

Best Western Dragon Gate Inn

Holiday Inn San Pedro / Los Angeles Harbor Hotel

Holiday Inn Universal Studios Hollywood Hotel

Comfort Inn Woodland Hills

La Quinta Inn La Palma/Theme Park, California CA

Comfort Inn Eagle Rock Los Angeles

Holiday Inn Express Los Angeles Univ Cty Cahuenga

Holiday Inn Long Beach Airport Hotel

Holiday Inn Monrovia Hotel

Holiday Inn Select La Mirada, CA

Holiday Inn Woodland Hills Warner Ctr Hotel

Best Western Eagle Rock Inn

2911 Colorado Blvd Los Angeles (Glendale Area) California 90041-1011 UNITED STATES Distance to Airport : 26 Miles / 41.8 Kilometers

The advantage of a cut in RPLR would accrue to all the existing floating rate customers over the period of next three months based on their respective reset dates, it said. This’s the first time that interest rates for existing floating loans customers are going down after a series of cuts in key rates and ratios by the RBI recently. Other banks are expected to follow suit and bring down the rates soon, banking sources said.

The company has also announced a reduction in the rates for new customers as well. It has now created two slabs for new customers. Rates on new floating loans up to Rs 20 lakh slab have been cut by 150 basis points from 11.75 per cent to 10.25 per cent. Rates on floating rates above Rs 20 lakh have been cut by 50 basis points from 11.75 per cent to 11.25 per cent. Renu Sud Karnad, joint MD, HDFC Ltd, said, “We have been able to bring down our costs due to improved operational efficiency and good quality portfolio. As in the past, HDFC has ensured that reduction in the cost of its resources translates into a benefit in terms of lower costs for both existing and new customers.”

Public sector banks last week capped the interest rates at 8.5 per cent for loans up to Rs 5 lakh to encourage low-income housing. For middle-income loans of Rs 5-20 lakh, PSU banks would charge a maximum of 9.25 per cent. These rates would be reset only after five years. HDFC will also reduce its deposit rates by 50 bps across all maturities effective December 23. On an incremental basis retail deposits for the first seven months, April to October 2008, formed 62 per cent of HDFC’s funding requirement. Similarly, the rates of interest on loans to NRIs have also been reduced.

If you are looking to make a journey by train but don’t know where to start or which type of train goes to the place you want to travel to, a good place to start would be by referring to the Indian railways timetable. This Indian railways timetable has the train schedule of all the trains that travel from and to railway stations across the country. If you are looking for indian railway reservation a train from Kolkatta’s Howrah Railway Station to New Delhi Railway Station, the train schedule will show you all the options and will help you decide which train you can take as per your convenience.

To check the Accommodation Availability Enquiry on Trains till Departure which is available from 0400 hrs IST to 2330 hrs (GMT+5:30 hrs). A person has to Enter Train Number: Enter Day, Month, Enter Source Station Code and Enter Destination Station Code, Enter Class: First ACSecond ACThird ACAC Chair CarFirst ClassSleeper ClassSecond Seating, Enter Quota: Tatkal Quota for Ladies QuotaDefence, QuotaForeign, TouristDuty, Pass Quota, Handicaped Quota, Parliament House Quota, Lower Berth Quota, General Quota.

If you do not know the train number then you should click here and if you do not know the stations code then one should click here. Rediff.com, India’s leading online portal has launched an extremely easy and efficient search service to find seat availability and fares for trains in India. The ‘Rediff Trains Fare Search’ service allows users to check availability of seats with fares, check PNR status, get detailed schedule of trains including real-time arrival and departure status by using a simple search engine query. The Government owned Indian Railways runs a very large operation. Indian Railways, with a network of 63,332 kilometres, is the second largest in the world and moves about 16 million people and 2 million tonnes of cargo each day. To view related information in details:

Trains Schedule : -

Know all about Trains between important stations of Indian Railways.

Know about Seat Availability of Indian Railways.

Everything about Tatkal Scheme of Indian Railways.

Know about the PNR (Passenger Reservation Enquiry) Status.

Know about important and special trains of Indian Railways.

Official Website of Indian Railways is : - www.indianrail.gov.in

The official website of Indian Railways include  Rules, ticket booking,  Train Schedule, Train Fare, Information on Indian Railways Services. Buy  Tickets on Indian Railways website!

These links of Indian Railways to Official website of Indian railways, with links of railways tickets booking, Railways and Train Fare, Railways and Train Schedule, Railways Rules, Information about Indian Railways.

FriendFinder is best known for its Adult FriendFinder site, which is a social network for folks looking for services that probably shouldn’t be mentioned on a family friendly site on Christmas Eve. But I’m a sucker for an entertaining regulatory filing as are a few other bloggers .

The IPO, which is underwritten by a firm called Renaissance Capital (we’re not talking Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley folks), details a bevy of interesting stats such as churn rates on Adult FriendFinder as well as nuggets on how Penthouse magazine is trying to cover sports and games. FriendFinder also operates sites such as AdultFriendFinder.com, Amigos.com, AsiaFriendFinder.com, Cams.com, FriendFinder.com, BigChurch.com, and SeniorFriendFinder.com.

As background, Penthouse bought Various, which is the parent of FriendFinder, a year ago for $400 million. The $460 million in potential IPO proceeds will go to paying off FriendFinder’s almost $450 million in debt. For the nine months ending September 30, FriendFinder had revenue of $243 million, operating income of $17.6 million and a net loss of $32.3 million. Prior year comparables are largely irrelevant since you’re comparing a social network to Penthouse magazine.

Here’s all you really need to know: This IPO is a Hail Mary pass for survival. The company says it all in its prospectus:

Our ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on our ability to raise additional capital, including from this offering. As of September 30, 2008, our balance sheet had approximately $43.3 million in cash and restricted cash and $420.1 million in short-term debt, net of unamortized discount, $411.0 million of which had been reclassified from long-term debt, due to our failure to comply with certain covenants and restrictions in the agreements governing our 2005 Notes and 2006 Notes and our subsidiary’s First Lien Senior Secured Notes, Second Lien Subordinated Secured Notes and Subordinated Convertible Notes and for which waivers had not been obtained…If we are unable to cure such defaults and/or obtain waivers, we could trigger the acceleration of payment provisions in such agreements which would require us to immediately repay up to approximately $466.0 million to our noteholders. We do not currently have sufficient cash to repay this indebtedness if our debt is accelerated and if the noteholders instituted foreclosure proceedings against our assets, the proceeds of the assets could be insufficient to repay such indebtedness in full. Under these circumstances, we may be unable to continue operating as a going concern.

Comforting eh?

At least there are some really interesting stats from FriendFinder (since we don’t get much color from private social networks like Facebook). Here’s a look:

• FriendFinder averaged 1 million paying subscribers a month for the first nine months of September 30. That’s good for 77.2 percent of Internet revenue. Net revenue per subscriber was $19.06 a month.

• Paid users, people who pay by usage, averaged 1.7 million minutes a month–good for 19.6 percent of revenue.

• The monthly churn rate is 18 percent for the nine months ending September 30, down from 19.6 percent at the end of 2007. Here’s the breakdown by product category (click to enlarge):

• Ad revenue of $152,356 a month for the nine months ending September 30 is skimpy. The company is hoping to change that, but acknowledges: “We have never generated significant revenue from internet advertising and may not be able to in the future.”

• A nice history lesson on Various, which operates other social networks beyond Adult FriendFinder.

• American Express won’t process credit card transactions for adult material.

• Various neglected to collect taxes in the EU. The company says:

After our acquisition of Various, we became aware that Various and its subsidiaries had not collected VAT from subscribers in the European Union nor had Various remitted VAT to the tax jurisdictions requiring it. We have since registered with the tax authorities of the applicable jurisdictions and have begun collecting VAT from our subscribers in the European Union and remitting it as required. We have initiated discussions with most tax authorities in the European Union jurisdictions to attempt to resolve liabilities related to Various’ past failure to collect and remit VAT, and have now resolved such prior liabilities in several jurisdictions on favorable terms, but there can be no assurance that we will resolve or reach a favorable resolution in every jurisdiction. If we are unable to reach a favorable resolution with a jurisdiction, the terms of such resolution could adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations.

Overall, I’d file this IPO filing in the “you must be kidding” department.

This is one of those reasonably meaningless polls that ends up saying what we already knew: people like their Internet access. In this survey of 2,119 adults polled by Harris Interactive, Internet access polled higher than any other source of discretionary spending (things like eating out, shopping, and television subscriptions).

But the real buzz around the survey comes from these numbers: 46% of women and 30% of men would rather give up sex for two weeks than give up Internet access over the same period. Frankly, that’s lower than I’d expect: I’m not sure what kind of Casanovas they polled, but I go without sex for two weeks sometimes totally by accident. On the other hand, every time I’ve gone two weeks without the Internet, it was as some kind of forced vacation and I really felt the pain.

Intel also said that 65% of those polled “cannot live without Internet access,” which is kind of an extreme reaction. Does that mean that they’d kill themselves rather than live without it? Or just wish they’d never been born?

What do you guys think? Two weeks without sex, or two weeks without your precious Internet?

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi : - Yash Raj Films

Here’s the story : -

SHAHRUKH is married to ANUSHKA but there is a huge age gap between them. There is no real romance in the marriage. Then, a dance reality show called “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” airs and ANUSHKA wants to participate but can’t because her husband is not hip and happening, she has a fear of losing and she also fears that her friends will laugh at her. SHAHRUKH overhears this problem and decides to go in for a makeover. He watches some movies and learns to dance in order to woo his young wife. Throughout the show ANUSHKA keeps falling in love to with this ‘new and improved’ SHAHRUKH KHAN without once realizing that he’s her husband. In the end, a justified title “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi”

The miles-per-gallon standard for cars in the United States is stuck at 27.5, compared to 43 in Europe and 46 in Japan. And those standards will be laughable in a few years time. Case in point: A British Volkswagen concept car gets 235 miles to the gallon. But that one won’t be available for a couple more years.

“Given everything that’s coming soon, if you can afford to wait, wait,” says Chelsea Sexton, electric vehicle advocate and executive director of Plug In America. (And while you’re waiting check out these 100 tips to save on fuel costs with your current vehicle.)

A plug-in hybrid charges for a few hours from a regular plug, runs solely on electricity for 40 miles or so and then kicks into gas-battery mode after that. Sexton says the full electric charge will cost about 50 cents a day. General Motors is readying both the Saturn Vue and Chevy Volt plug-in hybrids for consumers, while Daimler is working on plug-in Mercedes and Smart cars.

Or, for about $10,000, EPA-certified Hymotion will convert your gas-electric hybrid car into a plug-in. But if you’re looking to buy now, here are some of the most fuel-efficient passenger vehicles on the road in the United States:

10. Toyota Yaris

At 32 miles-per-gallon combined city and highway, this is one of three all-gasoline-powered contenders that made our list.

The non-hybrid sedan is on par with some of the green SUVs on this list, but it boasts the weirdest name, apparently being a combination of the Greek goddess of grace “Charis” and the German “ya.’ Hmm. While there are some better-named and better-performing subcompact cars than the Yaris, they’ll cost more to fill up.

9. Hybrid SUV Tie: the Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner and Mazda Tribute

Last year Paris Hilton said she wanted a hybrid Hummer and GM responded, “A vehicle like that does not exist.”

Undeterred, Hilton ended up with a shiny new GMC Yukon hybrid that gets around 21 miles per gallon. All three of these hybrid SUVs do much better, getting 32 combined city and highway miles per gallon.

8. MINI Cooper

The MINI is to this list’s collection of vehicles what the iPod is to MP3 players. It comes in a sharp palate of colors, including “British racing green,” “oxygen blue,” and, of course “mellow yellow.” A stylish product of the 1960s, the vehicle has evolved since its Austin Powers beginnings.

At a combined 32 MPG for the 2008 six-speed manual transmission model, this little number might get some Yanks to say, “Yeah baby!”

7. Toyota Camry Hybrid

Besides being voted the best new family car last year in its price range by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada, HybridCars.com called the Camry Hybrid, “relatively attractive and altogether predictable.”

And predictable is good, especially when you can predict that the 2009 automatic model will get 34 combined city and highway miles per gallon.

6. Nissan Altima Hybrid

A New York Times reviewer described it thus: “The Altima Hybrid fit me like a pair of Tony Lama Black Label boots, which is to say something akin to house slippers.”

Since this hybrid is currently available only in a handful of states on either side of the country, it’s probably harder to get than some Tony Lamas. At a combined MPG of 34, let’s hope Nissan ups production.

The average price of self-serve gasoline dropped 22 cents in the past two weeks, said Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey.

The average, tallied on Friday, was the lowest since the $1.74 average on March 12, 2004, Lundberg said.

Lundberg attributed the price reductions to a drop in crude prices and demand. Prices could drop more if the global economic crisis continues to affect demand for crude oil.

The all-time high average was $4.11, set on July 11, according to Lundberg.

The Lundberg Survey is based on responses from more than 5,000 service stations nationwide.

Drivers in Cheyenne, Wyoming, had the cheapest gas prices, paying $1.46 on average. Motorists in Anchorage, Alaska, paid the most, at $2.54 on average.

Here are average prices in other cities:

Detroit, Michigan — $1.61

El Paso, Texas — $1.81

Atlanta, Georgia — $1.72

Salt Lake City, Utah — $1.58

Manchester, New Hampshire — $1.76

Miami, Florida — $1.87

Los Angeles, California — $1.83

Portland, Oregon — $1.93

Did Apple know what the future held when CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone during his Macworld Expo keynote in January 2007? They probably had some sense of it, but they likely had no idea that games would become such a big part of the platform, especially considering the outsider status of gaming on the Mac. The company is clearly ready to take full advantage of the current situation, however, as evidenced by the recent iPod touch ad that focuses solely on games.

“In looking at Apple’s game sales on the App Store in general, there are a few cases where Apple’s monthly sales have surpassed certain carrier sales for the same period,” Travis Boatman, Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS) vice-president of worldwide studios, told me. He also noted that more than 70 percent of the titles on Apple’s Top Paid Apps list are games, although others I interviewed expressed concern over being able to stand out in a crowded marketplace that already features more than 10,000 apps, around 2,000 of which are games.

“Some of [the games] are just terrible, so while there are almost 2,000 games, some are barely a game. But of the good ones, it is hard to stand out,” said Bruce Morrison, a producer at Freeverse. “That’s why we are focusing on making our games with that extra bit of shine and polish. Really focusing on gameplay and look. And then listening to the users to get their requests implemented right away.” Freeverse has already issued updates to several of its games, including “Burning Monkey Casino,” “Flick Fishing,” and “Flick Bowling.”

Morrison wasn’t alone in praising the App Store’s rating system, which allows developers to quickly get feedback and implement changes to their titles. “With the comments forum on the App Store, you get instantaneous feedback on whether a game is well-received or not,” noted Gonzague de Vallois, sr. vice-president of publishing at Gameloft. “There’s no sleek marketing campaign that you can do if the game is a bad, since the consumers will comment on it, thus highlighting the importance of quality.”

Unfortunately, even with a feedback system, the wide-open nature of the App Store can make it difficult to catch users’ eyes, said Glenda Adams, director of internal development at Aspyr Media. And that has led to issues with pricing, where some publishers, even such large ones as Gameloft and EA, have resorted to cutting prices to attract more sales. “The price points of iPhone games have dropped rapidly over the first three to four months,” she told me, “so now most of the top games are selling for 99 (US) cents or $1.99. That can make it hard to have much of a development budget. Even if you have a hit, and sell 30,000 to 50,000 units, selling at 99 cents doesn’t generate a lot of revenue compared to $39 or $49 PC or Mac games.”

She added: “The good news is that iPhone users are generally looking for smaller titles they can play for a bit and move on. They don’t need 20 hours of gameplay like a big PC/Mac or console game. I really see iPhone games as a market of consumables — a 99-cent game is like buying a candy bar. If you have fun and play with it a couple days, you aren’t disappointed.”

Of Encroaching on Sony and Nintendo

While many games are of a casual nature, however, some developers are pushing the envelope with games that can take a while to play through and offer a high level of replay value. As the iPhone games market matures, comparisons with the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) handhelds are inevitable, although they can be of an apples-to-oranges nature, according to Boatman: “The iPhone has some similar game capabilities as platforms like the DS and PSP, but is unique because it is not a dedicated gaming device. So we expect to see consumers of the DS and PSP clearly prioritize games over consumers who purchase an iPhone. Given that, we’re seeing different usage patterns, and product consumption for each platform, and we are crafting our product offering accordingly.”

“I don’t think the iPhone will compete with the DS or PSP, but everyone forgets the iPod touch,” said Morrison. “That’s Apple’s flagship iPod. It’s clear all new iPods are going to be based on the touch in some way. In a few years, the iPod touches will probably outnumber the DS and PSP combined, 10-to-one. That will be the platform to completely dominate the handheld market. This Christmas, parents are not probably buying too many iPhones, but you had better believe they are buying touches.”

Digital Legends CEO Xavier Carillo Costa, whose company distributes “Kroll” through the App Store, compared development of iPhone games to DS and PSP development — “It requires a greater amount of skill sets from your team,” he said — and noted that the new platform has the potential to rival the others. “There is space for all platforms in the market,” he said. “They have a proven ecosystem already with success stories today, and are learning a lot in order to make a more solid ecosystem in the near future for all of us.”

“Throughout the next year, we anticipate seeing titles with more in-depth gameplay, in addition to licensed games that have been traditionally available for console,” said de Vallois. “As more games become available on the App Store, the iPhone will be a strong competitor with its multi-purpose functionality and entertainment capabilities. However, the Nintendo DS, today, undoubtedly remains the strongest handheld gaming platform that offers innovative gameplay and titles.”

Adams, who said the iPhone install base “is going to be huge” and who thinks “the iPhone will rival the PSP and DS,” compared Apple’s handheld to something else: “The iPhone is the Wii of handheld gaming devices. It has such unique input systems, and just enough different focus to stand out from the traditional systems. Like how the Wii has turned into the console ‘for the rest of us’ (my mother-in-law plays Wii Bowling when we’re together for the holidays!), the iPhone and iPod touch are the handheld gaming systems for people who wouldn’t consider buying a DS. And any core gamer that does own a DS or PSP is probably going to get an iPhone if they don’t already have one.”

The journey is over for Pirates of the Amazon, a new Firefox extension that let users illegally download movies, games, TV shows, and MP3s for free by cross referencing Amazon.com’s product pages with torrent files from the Pirate Bay.

On Thursday, a day after Webware reported on the plug-in, lawyers for Amazon.com took action. They served the Internet service provider of the two students who released the extension with a take-down notice–and the students complied and removed the tool, according to The New York Times.

However, on their Web site, the students now say the plug-in was meant as an artistic parody, part of their research for a media design course at the Piet Zwart Institute of the Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool in Rotterdam Holland. “It was a practical experiment on interface design, information access, and currently debated issues in media culture,” the students say.

And while that might seem like a convenient story concocted by the students to stay out of trouble, the NYT reports that they have backup from their teacher, Florian Cramer, who defended them on an Internet mailing list called Nettime.

Cramer said a majority of commentators failed to see the artistic nature of the experiment, and expressed concern that his students were being censored.

“With the take-down notice from Amazon.com, our students have been scared away from pursuing their art, research and learning in our institute,” Cramer wrote. “We do not want a culture in which students have to preemptively censor their study because their work confronts culture with controversial and challenging issues.”

While the extension was working, it showed up as a “Download 4 Free” link on the top of the Amazon product page if the content could be found on the Pirate Bay’s search index. This linked directly to the hosted .torrent tracker file, letting the user avoid having to make a purchase from Amazon in place of acquiring it illegally via BitTorrent.

This popularity is largely in due to Apple’s ability to produce and market innovative products. Today the iPod is the standard from which other digital music players are compared. Yet, the iPod is only one aspect of Apple’s trifecta in the world of digital music. There is also iTunes software to manage the music, as well as the iTunes store for music sales. When using an iPod, these three interact seemlessly, making the process very straightforward, yet importing music from other services can be anything but simple. Because of the increasing segregation between music purchased elsewhere and music purchased at the iTunes store, rivals and technology rights groups are worried Apple is being overly aggressive in their methods of music organization.

Others believe iTunes inhibits user choice in its methods of music management. ”Users should have the choice of the iTunes store or somebody else’s store,” says Rob Lord, chief executive of Songbird a rival music player that is designed for use on any device, including the iPod. He also added consumers should be able to switch to Nokia, Blackberry In Motion Ltd or other MP3 players without having to dump their entire music library.

One ‘problem’ is that their cries are  falling on deaf ears. As of right now, with Apple’s huge market share, as well as their continuing popularity, it has no reason to change the DRMscheme. On top of this, no one can force Apple to change their tactics. With Microsoft’s Zune, software, and marketplace trio, Apple is not a musical monopoly liable for review.

To illustrate the technology rights group’s fears, one must understand what it means to purchase a song through the iTunes store. Each track purchased is a normal MP4 file that has an encrypted audio stream (AAC. The purchase information, including the key used to encode the song are stored on Apple’s servers. In order to play the file, iTunes accesses Apple’s servers, downloads the key information, and activates the computer. At any given time, 5 computers can be activated to play the users songs through QuickTime. The issue lies in the fact that the songs can only play on activated computers, and only through programs that work with QuickTime. This seemingly ties the purchaser to Apple and QuickTime. Yet Apple has avoided lawsuits by giving users a work-around. To remove the DRM from the song, the song can be burned to a CD and re-ripped to the hard drive without any DRM. A lengthy and frustrating process for anyone who wants out from Apple.

Digital Rights Management for songs is not the only issue being brought up. The iPhone and iPod Touch both use a new version of an Apple file format known as iTunesDB. In order for software to sync with an iPod, iTunesDB must be used. The older version, which was used in previous generations of iPods, was hacked quickly, allowing access by third party programs. The new version hasn’t been cracked (yet), so as of now, users with an iPhone or iPod Touch must use iTunes to manage their music. For the majority of users, who use iTunes, this goes unnoticed, but for those who use Winamp or other popular music management software it brings up a host of issues.

How strongly does Apple feel about keeping iTunesDB uncracked? Enough that when possible cracking solutions were posted on the site bluwiki, Apple was quick to contact the operator, Sam Odio. “When a lawyer calls you up and implicitly threatens litigation that would bankrupt your little project you obviously have no choice but to comply,” he said.

Groups such as Electronic Frontier Foundation believe Apple has gone too far. “This is a pure attack on interoperability,” said Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer for the Foundation. “In October of last year, they added software which has no purpose other than to prevent applications other than iTunes from working,” he added.

Only time will tell if the Apple Juggernaut will be effected in the future as more and more users try software for their musical needs. With the overwhelming hostility towards digital gaming DRM such as that used in Spore, combined with more and more people’s desire for unencumbered music, Apple is asking for trouble if they add too much more rigidity to what their users can and cannot do.

Empornium.us is probably the world’s largest adult-material tracker. Indeed, at one stage it had over a million members which could elevate it to the position of world’s biggest private tracker, for any material. The site found itself in controversy in 2006 when an Israeli advertising company took over the site and kicked out many of the admins. For its part, Targetpoint denied the allegations, claiming one of its associates simply brokered the sale to an unknown third-party.

Today, users searching Google for Empornium.us are met with a warning under the URL: “This site may harm your computer”. After ignoring the warning and clicking the link using Internet Explorer, the Empornium main page starts loading, but is then punctuated with virus/malware/exploit warnings from an up-to-date anti-virus scanner. Google reports “Malicious software includes 4 trojans, 3 exploits. Successful infection resulted in an average of 11 new processes on the target machine.”

At this point we deemed the Google Safe Browsing report to be correct and abandoned our own tests. Accessing the Empornium homepage using Firefox3 caused an immediate halt:

Google notes that the ‘malicious software’ is actually hosted on 4 domains, including gianttopnano.cn, mmcounter.com, filmmultimediaonline.cn. Furthermore it states that two domains appear to be “functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site” including vxhost.cn, and filmmultimediaonline.cn.

TorrentFreak has contacted Empornium management for a comment, but so far there has been no response.

Update: Empornium Team contacted us, confirming that the malicious code has nothing to do with them and they are “taking action to shut down the infiltration & remove the code asap”. Their own tests so far show it is “exploiting a known & patched security hole in Acrobat”.

Although at £4,000 it is beyond the reach of most consumers, the high-performance processor could become invaluable to universities and medical institutions.

The revolutionary Tesla supercomputer was launched in London yesterday evening.

The NVIDIA’s Tesla computer could prove invaluable to medical researchers and accelerate the discovery of cancer treatments

The desktop workstations are built with innovative NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs), which are capable of handling simultaneous calculations usually relegated to £70,000 supercomputing ‘clusters’ that take up entire rooms.

‘The technology represents a great leap forward in the history of computing,’ NVIDIA spokesman Benjamin Berraondo said.

‘It is a change equivalent to the invention of the microchip.’

PHD students at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and MIT in America are already using GPU-based personal supercomputers for research.

Scientists believe the new systems could help find cures for diseases.

1954: The IBM 704 was considered to be the world’s first super-computer and took up a whole room designed for engineering and scientific calculations.

The device lets them run hundreds of thousands of science codes to create a shortlist of drugs that are most likely to offer potential cures.

‘This exceptional speedup has the ability to accelerate the discovery of potentially life-saving anti-cancer drugs,’ said Jack Collins from the Advanced Biomedical Computing Centre in Maryland.

The new computers make innovative use of the revolutionary graphics processing units, which NIVIDA claims could bring lightning speeds to the next generation of home computers.

‘A traditional processor handles one task at a time in a linear style, but GPUs work on tasks simultaneously to do things such as get colour pixels together on screens to present moving images,’ Mr Berraondo said.

‘So while downloading a film onto an iPod would take up to six hours on a traditional system, a graphics card could bring this down to 20 minutes.’

The supercomputers, made by a number of UK based companies including Viglen, Armari and Dell are currently on sale to universities and to the science and research community.

PC maker Dell said they would soon be mass producing them for the general consumer market.

The news comes in the form of two ads placed in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The ads highlight some of the applications available for the iPhone, but the print on the bottom of the ads reveal some new, previously unreleased, information.

In addition to the 300 million apps download, Apple also confirms that the App Store also passed the 10,000 app mark in the store.

The App Store opened almost five months ago on July 11, 2008 with 500 apps available for download. As of the last earnings announcement, Apple reported 200 million downloads of its then 5,500 apps.